Month: February 2017

Digital marketing has become increasingly popular as the world has become continually reliant on technology. At the heart of digital marketing is SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Successful SEO means that Google (or other search engines) to recognize a site as legitimate and consequently place it above other similar sites in a relevant search. “SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines.” (Moz) There are basic onsite and offsite SEO principles that can be adopted by seasoned or novice digital marketer that can help their website to rank above the competition.

Onsite describes “any code or data that sits on your website or digital asset” (Sutton). Manipulating information on your site to improve SEO can be called Onsite SEO. Onsite SEO focuses on making a website look natural and easy for Google to read. Google crawls websites which contributes to its SEO. To determine page rank and relevancy, Google uses algorithms. Onsite SEO “account for approximately 33% of Google’s algorithm (Sutton). The content on a site is judged by mathematical equations to judge relevance and then popularity (Moz). If a site is easily read by Google SEO will be improved. A few ways to increase Onsite SEO include: editing <meta>, <title>, and <img> tags within a sites format. By doing this, Google will have an easier time crawling the site and deciphering what is being said. In addition, making sure that all the links on a site pull the different pages together helps Google’s bots to crawl a site. Linking internally, or linking anchoring text, is essential. An example of this would be linking a page about Google AdWords to a different page on the site about the Keyword Planner. Creating interconnected links helps increase a sites SEO. Using relevant keywords on the site also works to improve SEO. Avoiding overusing keywords and duplicating content (copy and pasting) are SEO killers.

Below are 8 principles that you should follow if you want to maximize Onsite SEO for your page. The first thing that a marketer must try and do when working with Onsite SEO is “fulfill the searcher’s goal and satisfy their intent.” (Moz) As marketers it is important to try and answer the direct query that the user is asking. If someone is searching for “how to prepare for a 5k” they might just be looking for general knowledge of what to do for a marathon. However, in a week or two they could be looking for running shoes or energy gels for an upcoming race. So, one of the first principles on Onsite SEO is trying to attend to the searchers goal and then to fulfill the goal. The second principle is making sure that users can quickly and easily access your site. We’ve all abandoned a page that’s taken too long to buffer or load. Working to make sure that page availability is working at a high speed is a simple, but vital part on SEO. Building off of speed, increasing user interface and user experience helps to increase positive Onsite SEO. This can be improved by making sure that your site is user friendly on all devices. Other details in this element involve getting users to trust and know your site. The fourth principle revolves around making sure that you don’t dissuade users away from your site. “Overlays” dissuade users from sites. Overlays involve asking a question, and then a follow up question depending on an answer. On websites these are usually prompts like “do you want to learn more about digital marketing? If so, follow this blog.” The problem here is that users have to answer one way to move onto the next step. If their answer is no, sit could send them back to the search results. Principle five is all about keyword targeting. Placing the correct keywords in the correct places is an age old practice in SEO. Placing keywords in the title, page content, and image file name are all good places for keywords to be placed if your trying to rank well on Google. Targeting related topics is when Google draws connections between related terms and searches. This is the sixth principle for successful Onsite SEO. Related topics are terms that Google notices are associated with one another. As a marketer, you’ll want to try and include these related topics into your content. To Google, this adds legitimacy to your site and helps you rank. Snippet optimization is the seventh principle. Snippet optimization drives the click. Getting a click is an extremely important element alongside high page rank. The final principle involves producing unique content. With this principle, you need to evaluate what makes your content better than what’s already ranking. The key is producing valuable content that is also different than what’s already out there. Working to combine and follow these eight principles will help any marketer to improve Onsite SEO and achieve high page rank.

When developing and creating new products, mobile technologies affords the marketer an extremely useful new tool. Product, one element of the marketing mix, can be helped by mobile technologies.

Instead of holding focus groups, marketers can use the mobile apps, surveys, and comments sections to receive valuable feedback. First of all, most of your mobile users have already bought the product that is being sold. Otherwise they would not have been asked to rank a product, comment on its uses, or provide feedback. As a marketer, you already have these customers locked down. The ability to contact these users to see their impressions of a product is incredibly valuable. It will give you, the marketer, a better idea of how to approach these consumers and ones like them in the future. In addition, this mobile approach could create a more organic answer from the participants. Without the pressure of conducting a focus group in person, it may encourage a customer to be more honest on their review of the product.

The speed of the feedback from mobile users will be extremely fast. By allowing them to give feedback from their cellphones, they can give feedback at their convenience. It is possible to do the survey at any time. Making it great for marketers trying to collect data.

The marketing mix is heavily supported by mobile technology. Place is also supported by mobile devices. Now technology, such as apps, can be accessed virtually anywhere. Apps also have the ability to be accessed by those of different demographics. This can be important to a marketer. It should be able to let them know who their target market is in the future.

So how much mobile marketing practices should your firm use? It really depends on the market you are trying to reach. If your market is a younger generation, by all means reach them through mobile technologies. If your target group less technologically savvy, it may be wise to go with more traditional methods. Typically, mobile technologies are much more cost effective than using traditional marketing methods. The cost effectiveness of mobile marketing could free up funds for other components of the marketing mix.

Overall, it is important to take mobile technology into consideration when trying to improve a marketing mix. By utilizing these technologies and following best practices you can work towards a more effective campaign .